CONROE, Texas (KTRK) — A 6-year-old and his grandmother remain in the hospital nearly a week after a downed power line during last Tuesday’s severe weather shocked and burned the two.
According to the family, Nathan and Charlotte Winters were at the Lake Conroe campground where she lives when they encountered the energized line.
Morgan Winters, Nathan’s mother and Charlotte’s daughter, said the grandmother was pointing on the downed line to someone else from a distance when they were burned.
On Monday, ABC13 spoke with Morgan Winters, the boy’s mother and the woman’s daughter, as her loved ones were being treated inside the same hospital at the Texas Medical Center. Eighteen percent of the child’s body was covered in second-degree burns. Charlotte Winters’ injuries were considered more severe, with burns covering 55% of her body.
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“My mom had actually called me, but she wasn’t making sense,” Morgan Winters said about the moment she learned about what happened.
Morgan Winters doesn’t believe her son and grandmother were close to the downed line.
“Based on what she remembers and what we talked about, it’s not like they were within touching distance. Like, they were far away based on what she has said,” Morgan Winters said.
She added that her mother uses the little energy she can muster to check in on Nathan.
“She’s automatically like, ‘Morgan, how is Nathan? How’s my baby? How’s my baby? And they FaceTime multiple times a day,” Morgan Winters said.
Video calls were also the time when Nathan Winters saw his facial injuries for the first time.
“He immediately was like, ‘Mommy, I am hideous,’ and I was like, ‘No, you’re just injured right now,'” Morgan Winters recalled.
Nathan was in better spirits during ABC13’s visit. He told Eyewitness News that a reunion with his favorite person is the light at the end of the tunnel.
“What are you looking forward to most when you get out of the hospital?” ABC13 asked.
“Seeing my Nana,” he said.
Emergency responders want to remind people that the ground around downed power lines can be energized up to 35 feet away. Authorities didn’t disclose how far the pair were when they got burned.
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This story comes from our news partner ABC13 Houston.
